ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (March 6, 2026) — The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, is pleased to announce the election of Neil Brown as chairman of the Poynter Board of Trustees, following the retirement of Paul Tash, who served as chairman for 20 years.
Brown will also continue to serve as president of the Poynter Institute, guiding its overall operations, while assuming responsibility for chairing its governing body. (Brown previously was a member of the Board of Trustees). Tash’s retirement and Brown’s appointment took effect Thursday, March 5.
Poynter is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening journalism through teaching, fact-checking, media literacy, publishing and convening. It is also the owner of the Tampa Bay Times. Tash previously ran the Times as chairman and CEO from 2004 until he retired in 2022, but he retained his role leading Poynter’s trustees until this week.
Tash’s retirement officially ends a nearly 50-year association with Poynter and the Times. He started at the newspaper (then the St. Petersburg Times) as an intern and rose to the top of both the news company and its nonprofit owner and was one of the most prominent executives in the U.S. newspaper industry. The Institute was created 50 years ago by St. Petersburg Times owner Nelson Poynter, and upon his death in 1978 he bequeathed the paper to the institute to help ensure independent local ownership.
Tash said he is confident about what’s ahead for Poynter.
“With Neil Brown taking the lead, Poynter is rising to meet the profound challenges facing journalism and democracy, not just in America but around the world. Poynter’s future is in strong hands,” Tash said.
Brown worked closely with Tash both at the Tampa Bay Times, where he was editor for seven years, and at Poynter, which he joined as president in 2017.
“I’m honored to take on this expanded role in guiding Poynter’s future as the Institute champions journalism excellence and ethics and aims to bring creativity and imagination to the media marketplace,” Brown said. “At the same time, I’ll truly miss the leadership and contributions of my friend and mentor Paul Tash, who has been a deeply consequential advocate of journalism in Tampa Bay, Florida and across the nation.”
Brown, a native of Chicago, spent 29 years with the Times Publishing Company. In addition to his role as Times editor and vice president, he was executive editor, managing editor and world editor, and managing editor of Congressional Quarterly. While he led the newsroom, the Times won numerous awards, including six Pulitzer Prizes in eight years. He also launched PolitiFact.com, the fact-checking website that now is part of the Poynter Institute. He is a former co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Poynter and its staff lead the nation in training journalists in craft, ethics and leadership. In addition to PolitiFact, Poynter is home to the International Fact-Checking Network, the Newmark Ethics Center and the news literacy initiative MediaWise. Poynter works with journalists and citizens in the U.S. and more than a dozen countries.
Alexandra Zayas named Poynter trustee
Alexandra Zayas
The Poynter Board of Trustees also welcomed Alexandra Zayas as a new member of the board.
Zayas is deputy managing editor of ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative newsroom, where she has edited work that has been awarded Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service and Feature Writing, as well as National Magazine Awards and George Polk Awards.
Before joining ProPublica in 2017, she was an editor and a reporter for 12 years at the Tampa Bay Times. She regularly teaches an investigative reporting course for Poynter and has been an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
“Alex Zayas is one of America’s most talented journalists, and we are excited for her to bring her expertise and insights to Poynter’s Board of Trustees,” Brown said. “As an editor leading some of the best accountability and investigative work happening today, she and Poynter have a shared set of values about the importance of the free press.”
Zayas said she is looking forward to even deeper ties with Poynter.
“The Poynter Institute has shaped me as a journalist for much of my career, so it’s a special honor to join its board,” Zayas said. “Few institutions have done more to strengthen journalism by investing in the people who practice it. I’m excited to help Poynter sustain and expand that impact in the years ahead.”
Media Contact
Jennifer Orsi
Vice President, Publishing and Local News Initiatives
jorsi@poynter.org
About The Poynter Institute
The Poynter Institute is a global nonprofit working to address society’s most pressing issues by teaching journalists and journalism, covering the media and the complexities facing the industry, convening and community building, improving the capacity and sustainability of news organizations and fostering trust and reliability of information. The Institute is the gold standard in journalistic excellence and dedicated to the preservation and advancement of press freedom in democracies worldwide. Through Poynter, journalists, newsrooms, businesses, big tech corporations and citizens convene to find solutions that promote trust and transparency in news and stoke meaningful public discourse. The world’s top journalists and emerging media leaders rely on the Institute to learn new skills, adopt best practices, better serve audiences, scale operations and improve the quality of the universally shared information ecosystem.
The Newmark Ethics Center, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), MediaWise and PolitiFact are all members of the Poynter organization.
Support for Poynter and our entities upholds the integrity of the free press and the U.S. First Amendment and builds public confidence in journalism and media — an essential for healthy democracies. Learn more at poynter.org.
